What is the meaning of work? Only by never forgetting your original intention can you always succeed

Win-win is advocated everywhere now, and win-win is a fashionable idea. By designing a set of procedures or organizational structures and operating them objectively and realistically, both parties can benefit.

We are part of the organizational structure. By designing the organizational structure, we are actually planning ourselves. When we design learning environments, work environments, and organizational structures, we unintentionally shape human nature. Human nature reflects our design and optimization of the organizational structure, which can be regarded as a win-win situation.

Although none of us live in an extreme environment where work is meaningless, at least not everyone can find meaning in his or her work.

Adam Smith’s explanation is that in a modern society with a clear division of labor, work itself will bring benefits to others, and everyone will benefit from this. You don’t have to produce every component of your mobile phone yourself, you just need to buy the product; you don’t need to generate electricity or manage the mobile network. You can enjoy the convenient Internet by spending mobile communication fees; you don’t need to go Produce rice and vegetables yourself, transport and irrigate them, you can just buy them directly; you don’t need to set up a security system, the community property has a gatekeeper; you don’t need to study medicine or educate your children, there are other more professional people doing it A job you can’t do. The work itself brings benefits to others, and everyone benefits from it. Examples of this are everywhere.

Adam Smith established his own theory based on economists from France, the Netherlands, Scotland and other countries. He pointed out that large quantities of products cannot be manufactured by independent farmers or craftsmen. Depends on a large group of efficient professional workers, and those who pool their talents, skills and the fruits of their labor to trade. Adam Smith gave a famous example. He calculated that an independent pinmaker could only make at most one pin a day. However, in a factory, "one person draws the wire, another straightens it, and another person straightens it." Cutting, one person sharpens one end of the thread, and another grinds the other end to fit the round head..." In this way, on average, each worker can make nearly 5,000 buckle pins in a day.

Specialized division of labor only works in markets, which allow specialized workers to exchange their goods and services, and Adam Smith explained that economic activity is a form of mutually beneficial cooperation, which is what is known today In a "positive-sum game", the benefits gained by everyone are greater than the benefits given up. Through voluntary exchange, people benefit others by pursuing their own interests, as Adam Smith said: “Our supper does not come from the kindness of the butcher, the brewer, and the baker, but from their interest in their own interests. Attention. We appeal not to their charity, but to their self-interest." Adam Smith did not mean that human beings are extremely selfish, nor that they should be so. In fact, Adam Smith's attention to human sympathy and his profound explanation are rarely seen in history. He just emphasized that in the market, even if a person only cares about the interests of himself and his family, his work will bring benefits to everyone.

The rapid development of industrial society has alleviated material poverty, making modern people richer than any other period in history, but also poorer in spirit. We should no longer design and optimize the organizational structure at the expense of spiritual poverty. When we design the learning environment, working environment, and organizational structure, we inadvertently shape human nature. Human nature reflects our design and optimization of organizational structure.

I hope everyone finds meaning in his work.

Neil Jordan told a fable full of warning meaning.

A scorpion wants to cross a river, but it cannot swim. So it found a frog, the frog could swim, and the scorpion asked the frog to carry him across the river. But the frog said: "If I carry you across the river, you will definitely sting me." The scorpion replied: "You carry me across the river, if I sting you, wouldn't we all fall into the water and drown? So I won't sting you." The frog thought for a while and felt that the scorpion was right, so he agreed. It carried the scorpion on its back and began to cross the river. Halfway through, the frog suddenly felt a sharp pain on its back. It immediately realized that it had finally been stung by the scorpion, and the pain was unbearable. The frog and the scorpion gradually sank into the water, and the frog shouted loudly: "Scorpion, why did you sting me? Now we are both going to drown."

Scorpion replied: "I can't control it, it's my nature." ”

Many years ago, Rolling Stone magazine interviewed rock star Bruce Springsteen. He said this about his great success: I think it is music that makes me energetic...Music is mine. Lifeblood. Giving up music for things like TV, cars, and houses is not the American dream. If you do that, the prize you get in the end is the fool's prize. When you get these material satisfactions, you think it's success. But you were actually deceived. If you accidentally betrayed yourself, or let your best self slip away, then what you get is actually a consolation prize, so you have to be very vigilant and never forget your original intention. You can't stand still and look forward to reaching higher ground.